


the woman (i'll take care of you)

by qubrazahra



Category: K-pop, Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Heavy Angst, Mobster Shownu, and it just becomes, but i sort of always dont, falls in love with a girl, idk how the ending will be yet, shownu inherits a chain of brothels, sort of want it to end well, sorta - Freeform, who works in the brothel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 18:39:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9250640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qubrazahra/pseuds/qubrazahra
Summary: he lived his life in shadows, constantly afraid of the light. then he met her, the embodiment of the sun. stars fell from her heels every step she took and she shone bright. burned like fire, light coming from every corner when she was around. and he decided for a fiery rose like her, he had to be a lion.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "And her stone-wash denim jeans are darker than they seem/ And oh, I've got a woman now// And boy there's something different about your mouth/ And you try chasing dreams, man it's harder than it seems/ And oh, I've got a woman now"  
> \- The 1975, Woman
> 
> "You are a rose in the field where wolves walk/ I'll become a lion/ I'll become a lion/ I'll become a lion"  
> \- Giriboy, Take Care Of You

this is how it starts. he stands in front of the castle, the brothel, that now belongs to him. only he wants to burn it down. he wants to build a fire big enough to engulf them all. this is no heaven. this is his personal hell, wrapped like a gift, pushed into his hands as if he asked for it.

she stands, a few feet away and she smiles as bright as the summer sun, the kind of light he was only getting used to. he looks her in the eyes and he notices how swollen they was. he clenches his fist thinking  _i'll become a lion, i'll become a lion, for you i'll become a lion_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is how he meets her, a mystery enshrouded with beauty. 
> 
> this is how she meets him: a boy, innocence adorning his eyes, reading her name as if it were the first flower blooming in the most beautiful spring.

the first time he found out what his father did for a living, shownu felt his throat tightened and his stomach churned the way he never did. shownu never understood his father, was never quite interested at all in what the older did. but when he was of age, the older man just pulled him into his car and got the driver to drive to wherever the hell it was. shownu just did not expect the car to stop in front of the most infamous brothel in the red-light district of seoul.

he heard of the place of course, it’s infamous because everyone talks about it. about how insanely beautiful the girls are, how different it was from the other brothels around. shownu was never interested. he was always busying himself with school, with his paintbrushes and with dancing.

when he was younger, he thought of his father as some sort of god. his father always had an army of men around him, doing his work for him. his father just belted out orders and everything would be done, there was no second guessing what his father ordered, everything was done as asked. for shownu, this meant growing up with a silver spoon. anything he wanted, it was done. only he wasn’t sure the kind of man his father was. his father was always out doing his job but shownu always knew the blessings he had being able to live as grandly as he does.

“why… are we here?” shownu asked, head turning to his father who was now by his side, his men lining up around him, taking on a defensive stance against everyone except shownu and his father.

“this, son, is yours.”

shownu stood, unmoving, in front of the huge brothel. he did not know what he needs to do. he did not want to enter but he did not want to disrespect his father so he abided and followed the group into the area. it was both what he expected, and what he didn’t. there were so many people, beautiful women and men, roaming the area and shownu stood in awe, in reverence of the beauty within his sight. they were beautiful, and yet in the presence of his father, they shudder, a sort of respect… or fear… lingering in their eyes.

in the span of one night, shownu finds out that his father was a mobster, the owner of a chain of brothels. infamous brothels with wealth seeping through every nook and cranny. shownu watches his father intently the whole night, how comfortable his father was, how the old man was at his job, how he got men bending knees for him as if he were god and shownu felt helpless. this is his life now. if this is what that is given to him, even if he does not like it, it is his.

for the rest of the night, shownu excused himself, citing reasons like he has plans with his friends when truth is, he just did not want to be there. so now he sits, in silence, in a diner, a few blocks away. it was 2 in the morning, there isn’t many people around. it was only minutes later, enter the other major character of the story into said diner.

she sits at a table across from his, she has just a very loose hoodie and jeans. calls for whatever the diner still had as late dinner. very late dinner. she takes the cover off her head and her face falls over her face. she smiles and pushes it behind her ear before taking in the food in front of her. shownu doesn’t usually sit around in diners watching girls have late dinner but she was beautiful. almost insanely beautiful for him to look at her unabashedly like that.

“are you hungry too?” her voice pierced the silence and shownu almost fell back off the chair he was sitting on. he turned to see if she was talking to anyone else but stopped when he realised the only patrons were them both.

“i ate.” he answered quickly and she nods before bringing her food to his table, sitting just inches away from him.

“don’t mind me, i thought maybe having dinner with someone else would make the food taste less cold, and hopefully a lot better.” she confesses with another smile. shownu could not help but respond with a similar good-natured smile.

they stayed like that. she eats and he watches her for a while. they keep on at it for nights. shownu always finds himself back at the diner every morning at 2 and he always finds himself waiting for the woman to come through the door, have her dinner and sit just across him.

one of the nights he could not come because his father had told him to familiar himself with the brothel, know the floor better since it was to be his in a bit later. shownu does not like it very much to be involved in such businesses but he thought there is nothing much he could do anywhere so he did as he was told. he learnt the names of the women and men under him. there was a hwasa, a hyungwon, a hani, a kihyun - a few others whose names slipped his mind after a while. there were so many people, and he had so little time to try to know them all.

as a child shownu was always lonely, brought up with everything he could ask for in terms of wealth. but companionship-wise, there was not one person who was a constant for him, a person who would always stay around. maybe that’s why he does no really get used to being around people, maybe thats why when shownu goes around, he tries his best to remember but know better they’re people who won’t care enough for him to let him know them any better.

it was the first time for him to reach this far into the brothel to meet the people under him. he reaches a door that reads the name ‘rose’, he knocks on the door, a nagging feeling creeping over him. he hadn’t met all of them but he heard of a rose, one of the most famous girls in the brothel. he heard of her but he hadn’t seen her yet.

when she comes out of her room, she stand before him, a goddess far from his imagination. skin, alabaster and gold at the same time she shone brighter than the redness of her room. she had shiny brown eyes, eyes he knows well and a smile. a pretty, good-natured smile, the same smile he pinned for, for nights, for days. she stands before him a woman embodying the universe with a smile warmer than fire in winter. she knows shownu and shownu knows her. his heart breaks quietly and he holds his hand over his chest before greeting her politely with the name she gave herself.

“rose… is that right?” shownu’s voice was softer, gentler than ever and he reads her name as if it were glass, fragile to the faintest of sounds and she nods. she smiles in return except now her smile drips with apology, as if she was sorry for the nights they spent enjoying each other’s silence.

“i’m shownu… i’m-“  
“i know, you’re big boss’s son.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is how he saves her: he doesn't and he couldn't

shownu enjoys her company albeit it being mostly ensnared in silence. they don’t talk much, having little to talk about but there just sit across each other, having dinner. sometimes they sit beside each other, as if they were rest stops for the other. 

 

shownu has becomes used to the brothel. he doesn’t just visit this one, sometimes he is required to visit the other brothels cities away and in time he knows his place. she sits across him, having dinner and he thinks of the first time he met her. how her stone-wash denim jeans are darker than they seem and he smiled a little. 

 

time is a concept that had always fascinated him. what could seem to be infinity to him, could be absolute nothing to another. shownu raised his head and watched her in front of him. he had always been pliant, always listening, always doing without question. he never rebelled, never quite as much as say anything against his father. but he watched her in front of him and it would be a lie if he said his heart doesn’t ache.

 

time is funny - time makes shownu fall in love with a woman that can never be his. time makes shownu lay in his bed contemplating if he wants to give it all up for a girl who sits with him in silence. time makes shownu drink alone in frustration telling himself how he needs to toughen up, how he needs to fight for what he wants… for who he wants. time makes shownu sit in front of her wondering, thinking if there was anyway he could become a lion for a rose like her alone in a field where wolves walk.

 

“what are you thinking about, shownu?” she asks and he always wonder how is it that his heart jumps when she calls his name. he shakes his head.

 

“you know… I’ve been thinking, you always spend your time with me even when you really don’t have to and i’m flattered really,” she started, her chin now resting on her hands, “but if you’d like to sleep with me, it’s on the house, i don’t mind.”

 

shownu watches how careful her lips are when she talks. he hated what she just said. he had always hated the thought of how the men touch her when her clothes are off. he hates how sometimes the men who comes along are old enough to be her father and she doesn’t get the least bit flustered, knowing well that she’d have to do her best. he hates how most of the time when he sees her, she greets him with a smile and eyes swollen, drained of all tears her small body could muster.

 

“don’t say that.” 

 

shownu looks her in the eyes and he noticed the tears pooling, he wanted to reach out and wipe it away for her but before he could, she turned away. and she laughs. she always laughs when she’s about to cry and he hates how he could do nothing about it.

 

shownu stands up, closes the door and he sits beside her, on her bed. shownu takes a breath, faces her and he looks at her. the way she shines, so brightly in front of him. he hates how he sees her light and how nobody feels the way he does for this amazing woman. 

 

“i want to sleep with you.” shownu confessed.

 

“i want to sleep with you. i want to hold your hand. i want to buy you nice things. i want to bring you to the beach. i want to show you my art. i want to treat you to a really good warm dinner.” he continued.

 

“i don’t want you to be here.” shownu finally looks up and he finds the two brown eyes he had learn to love looking right back at him. “i hate that you’re here.”

 

when he think of her, he thinks of her eating dinner at 2 in the morning. he thinks of her beautiful eyes, and her glorious smile. how she is like the sun and the star all at once and his heart breaks.

 

“this is my place, shownu, there’s nowhere else left for me.” she replies, the smile he is so used to, again gracing him.

 

“if you want me, shownu, take me. i’m yours. all of us in this brothel are. you and me, we’re different, not made for each other.” she continues, standing to go have a seat at her vanity.

 

“i’ll sleep with you, it’s what i always do. but-“

“i’ll take care of you, i’ll take you out of here.”

 

shownu doesn’t quite know what made him say it. of course he wanted her out, of course he had been talking about it to his father, about taking one of the best girls out of the brothel because his son is so deeply infatuated with her. how he is losing his fucking mind just thinking about her having to take anything that walks through her doors. how fucking miserable it makes him feel when he sees her hides her tears from him as if it doesn’t hurt, as if she _wants_ to be where she is at. how his father had been against it, how disappointed the older man had been. how his father had warned if anything of the sort ever comes to his knowledge again, hell will rise.

 

“you’re not the first man to promise me something like that, shownu,” she started, looking at him from the mirror in front of her.

 

frustrated, shownu stood up, rushed towards her, plunging lips first for the woman in front of him. he feels her skin like oceans cradling him and he softens. he feels her hands, her fingers, the flutter of her eyelashes and he pulls back. inches away, he looks her in the eyes. there was a soft defiance, a woman standing with a sign overhead telling him that she isn’t here to be saved.

 

“i’ll take care of me the way i’ve always taken care of myself, shownu, you don’t have to take care of me.”


	4. Chapter 4

shownu fell in love the moment she walked into the diner, sat in the chair, smiling as she eats her dinner at some ungodly hour. he loves her when he found her home. he loves her when she sits beside him in silence. he loves her still when she refused to be safe.

shownu watches her feets away, watch the stars she leaves with every footstep she takes. they’re older now, just a little older. he learn the ropes, knows what to do (like to keep your friends close, but enemy closer - cliche as a mobster but what’s got to give) and what not to do (like not to fall in love with girls or boys working in your brothels). 

shownu doesn’t try to save her anymore. he sits with her still. he shares with her his art and she tells him dreams aren’t easy but they should always be chased. and this is how shownu still loves her: he watches her from a distance away, watches her smile while their hearts both break.

this is how he loves her: he waits for her to save herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm not quite satisfied with this story as i'd like to be but nevertheless this was a product of a story idea that had always got me thinking - sorta like romeo and juliet but not exactly romeo and juliet. woman is one of my favorite songs and so is take care of you and they both sort of have the same story and i thought man, what a rush it would be to write about it so i did and i hope it was alright. cheers!


End file.
